How's that new FW TD working for ya?
McLaren changes nothing and still leaves everyone in their dust
So we have seen the first competitive session post-TD.
And my main question is: where is the shake-up? Where is the jumbled order that was going to dethrone McLaren and give everyone else a chance to catch them?
My favourite bit about this—which I said was nonsense before, if I may add—was that McLaren was one of three teams to NOT bring a front wing update. The team actually brought NO updates to Barcelona.
Mercedes and Alpine also did not change their front wings, while everyone else did. So yeah, as predicted in this space before, the impact of the new TD was GREATLY exaggerated.
It is incredible, really, that people still fall for these stories.
FP3
The track was still boiling for the third and last practice session of the weekend.
Air temperature hovered around 30 and track never dipped below 45. Even with the hardest tyres compounds Pirelli can offer, the conditions were not great for the rubber.
And that led to?
Absolutely no change to McLaren’s results. Oscar Piastri led Lando Norris at the end, the only two drivers to dip below 73 seconds for their best laps. Charles Leclerc, in third place, managed a 13.1, while Piastri was almost 1 second faster.
Again, how is that TD shake-up doing?
Haas showed no pace, after their great result with Esteban Ocon at Monaco, and Fernando Alonso managed to sneak into the Top 8 with Isack Hadjar, as Lewis Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda failed to match their teammates.
The surprise, for me, was the pace of the Saubers, with Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hülkenberg finishing just outside the Top 10. Of course, we’re talking ‘bout practice (Allen Iverson™).
But the time to got at it with all guns blazing was coming and after a truly remarkable Formula 2 Sprint race, it was time for Qualifying.
Qualy
In the previous 37 races at the Catalunya track, 34 have been won from the front row, over 90%. One win from third, one from fourth, one from fifth, and that is it.
The win from fourth was the glorious 2016 race, when Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collided and an 18-year-old Max Verstappen won his first race. It is still hilarious to think back to that day, as Verstappen had just replaced Daniil Kvyat in the main team. He won the race, justifying the move—that story is great, but not for today—but Kvyat had the best lap for Toro Rosso, which was powered by a Ferrari engine in those days.
A great day all around. Well, unless you were a Mercedes fan/employee or Kimi Räikkönen, who pressured Verstappen as much as he could but never managed to get past. The rest of us had a lot of fun.
Many people probably hoped Verstappen could pull something out of the hat. Or maybe Charles Leclerc could find a magical lap and get in there.
When the last flag fell, the answer was a resounding no to any and all questions of McLaren’s imperious pace.
Piastri wiped the floor with the entire field—including his teammate—and will start from the front tomorrow.
The field was incredibly tight in Q1, and it is difficult to accept that we are losing these regulations just as things become so tight.
The one crazy result, obviously, is Tsunoda being dead last. Franco Colapinto even failed to try for another lap at the end of Q1 and STILL finished higher than the second Red Bull driver. It is puzzling, especially if you watch the lap and realise that Tsunoda had a decent lap, a poor T12, and was LAST.
He lost over 0.1 to Verstappen in that sector, but even with a tight field, it is mind-boggling.
When we look at the entire lap, the differences become clear, and it is a bit easier to understand how Tsunoda could do so poorly.
He cannot match Verstappen in almost any point, and those little slices of time add up to the continuation of the Curse of the Second Red Bull Seat.
We can already wait for the start of the “Hadjar to Red Bull” annoying stories. They cannot be long in coming, and they will be dreadful.
I just watched a Carlos Sainz hair product commercial in the Portuguese broadcast of the lead-up to the Champions League final, and my thoughts were derailed. Damn, that dude has great hair. Anyway, back to the subject in hand.
The weather did not relent, but the temperature trended down throughout the session and, for Q3, it was slightly less dreadful.
But during Q1, when the temperature was at its highest, the rubber was not enjoying the conditions and a few drivers used 3 sets of new soft tyres to try to extract the best possible lap times they could.
There is a price to pay, if you do progress, obviously, and it can even create a problem in the race, should you need a set of softs for a quick flying stint.
Esteban Ocon used 3 sets and fell in Q1. Franco Colapinto tried to use 3, but his last stint ended at pit exit, as his car had a driveline failure and he never made his final attempt.
Ocon’s teammate Oliver Bearman, Williams’ Alexander Albon, and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll all used 3 sets and made it through to Q2, with Bearman making it through by just over 0.1 over Hülkenberg.
Crucially over at Sauber, who continued to show pace, Bortoleto made it through to Q2 while his teammate was the first driver eliminated.
Their laps were very close, but with the field so tight, just a few little losses were enough to see Hülkenberg dropped in the first part of Qualifying.
As usual, the ideal laps plot shows left time on the table and lost out because of it. And, here again, Tsunoda has a terrible showing, as he DID hit his ideal lap and it was still the worst on the day.
Hülkenberg would have made Q2 if he had come close to his best effort, while all other eliminated drivers had to offer which would have seen them through.
For Q2, both Bortoleto and Lawson met the same fate. Their cars are simply not fast enough to make Q3.
In the third part of the session, Alonso could have jumped up one place, Russell could have vaulted Verstappen, but no one came close to Piastri’s best. Not even Norris’ ideal lap would have been enough, that is how much the Australian flew on the day.
Oh, and hitting his ideal lap in his last go is not a bad showing of his quality and the confidence with which he is driving these days.
Unless Norris can jump Piastri at the start, Piastri can cruise to victory. Assuming, of course, the race is a straightforward affair, which is not certain at all.
Leclerc never went for a second run in Q3, as he had no tyres, and Alonso ran in the gap between 1st and 2nd runs for everyone else for the same reason. Leclerc was dropped to P7—which could be better than 6th, due to the grip level on the grid—but George Russell did manage to find a bit of time with used tyres in his last run, so maybe Leclerc could at least have tried?
Hamilton was also dropped at the death of the session, pushed to 5th, so also starting on the grippier part of the track. The danger, obviously, is that if you start so close to the midfield, you can become involved in a Turn 1 incident. Especially one caused by a driver coming from the back and not realizing they are carrying extra speed due to the tow from the many cars in front.
We hope it does not happen, but it does happen rather frequently…
The McLaren’s main challenger again qualified well, but Verstappen will start in the “dirty” part of the grid, which can cause a loss of position with the run to the first turn being so long.
He did wring some pace out of his car, and even went full-tilt at the end of the lap, something not even the McLaren drivers managed.
It does not mean a lot, but it does show that the car can still perform some miracles when the defending champion is the one driving it.
Piastri also has an incredibly showing when it comes to the telemetry, comprehensively beating his teammate and Russell.
Both drivers had good starts to their laps, but once Piastri started pushing all out after Turn 6, it was no contest. Watching his lap from the cockpit, it is a testament to how great the car is because Piastri pushes hard, and the car does not complain, just does what it is told. Piastri, then, can explore every centimetre of the track, creating art in motion, showing off all his talent while registering the 4th pole position of his career.
The surprises of Qualifying were Pierre Gasly and Isack Hadjar. Both French drivers made it to Q3 and once there beat Alonso to start behind the Top 7.
Gasly, in particular, had a great session, not wasting a third set of soft tyres in Q1 and then making it all the way to start in P8, Hadjar right behind him.
Tomorrow, in a race where overtaking is quite difficult, it could lead to another good scoring finish for both. Especially if the drivers ahead hit some trouble.
Williams was a bit disappointing, as Sainz fell in Q1 and Albon finished P11. After their nice sequence of results, we will see tomorrow if Albon can move forward and score again.
